Catechist Background and Preparation
To prepare for the session, read all the readings.
Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15
Psalm 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54
Ephesians 4:17, 20-24
John 6:24-35
Spend a few minutes reflecting on what these readings mean for you today. Is there a particular reading which appeals to you? Was there a word or image that engages you?
Read the Word in Liturgy and Catholic Doctrine sections. These give you background on what you will be doing this session. Read over the session outline and make it your own. Check to see what materials you will need for the session.
The Word in Liturgy
Today’s gospel reading is taken from the first dialogue between Jesus and the crowd. In the dialogue the familiar Johannine literary technique of misunderstanding is used to deepen the reader’s insight into the true significance of Jesus’ miracle and his teaching. The crowd asks Jesus three questions, each time revealing how superficial their grasp of Jesus and his message is. When they ask, “When did you get here?” Jesus indicts them for failing to grasp on the level of faith the “sign” he worked, the multiplication of loaves. They came looking for him not because of the abundant bread that filled their bellies. In response to their second question, about “works,” Jesus redefines the term to mean faith in the one God has sent. Finally, in reply to their request for a “sign,” Jesus offers an interpretation of Psalm 78:24, which they have just quoted to him. In it he invites them to understand the miracle of the manna in the Exodus event in a way that points to himself as “the bread of God which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” The final verses, in which the crowd once again misunderstands the meaning of “bread,” is a classic example of how John develops a dialogue on two levels simultaneously, allowing the misunderstanding of Jesus’ dialogue partners to reveal to the reader the deeper, hidden meaning which his opponents miss.
The reading from Exodus develops a theme that recurs throughout the book’s narrative of the forty years of desert wanderings. Again and again, the people complain against God, only to have the Lord forgive them and extend gracious care to them. They grumble about their lack of food. In response, God gives them both quail and manna to eat. It is Moses who interprets the deeper significance of these naturally occurring resources by calling the manna the “bread that the Lord has given you.” The verses of Psalm 78 chosen for today’s Responsorial Psalm recount this portion of the Exodus story and highlight the divine origin of the food that sustained the Israelites during their desert wanderings. The Psalm refrain echoes verse 24, “The Lord gave them bread from heaven,” a natural complement to the gospel text which quotes the same verse.
The admonition in the Ephesians text to “put away the old self” and “put on the new self” is very likely an allusion to the ritual of baptism in which those baptized stripped off their everyday clothes, were plunged into the waters of baptism, and then donned new, white garments. The ethical imperatives found in this section of the letter are rooted not just in abstract doctrines which the Christian converts have been taught, but in the life-changing ritual experiences they have undergone as well. The Pauline themes of newness—a new creation in Christ—is prominent in this passage, which calls upon the readers to make a decisive break with the ways of the surrounding pagan world.
Catholic Doctrine
Eucharistic Celebration
From the earliest of times, believers have gathered to celebrate the Eucharist, the paschal banquet of the Lord. In general, the order of worship for Mass has remained quite consistent since Saint Justin Martyr (d. 165) wrote to the pagan emperor Antoninus Pius about the year 155, explaining what Christians did when they gathered (CCC 1345). Mass unfolds according to a basic structure handed down from those days. The structure is twofold. The first part of the Mass is called the Liturgy of the Word and the second part is called the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
In the first part, the assembly gathers and readings from sacred Scripture are proclaimed. After the readings, a homily is offered, exhorting the assembly to live according to the Word of God. There follows intercessory prayer: for the pope, the local bishop, and for the needs of those within and without the community. In the second part, the assembly presents to the presiding priest gifts of bread and wine. After these are prepared, the Eucharistic Prayer is then recited or sung as a prelude to sharing communion. The presider then offers concluding prayers and dismisses the assembly with the exhortation to live the Good News, which all have just celebrated liturgically in Word and Eucharist.
Throughout this work of community worship, in the sacramental sacrifice of the Mass, the entire household of the faithful gives thanks to God for all God’s saving works among us and memorializes the saving action of Christ in a way that makes it present for us again today.
It is important to note that whenever the Eucharist is celebrated by a particular community, we Catholics believe that through the presence and power of Christ himself that local Church is united with the Church universal. Our baptism incorporates us into the mystery of Christ and makes us members of his body, the Church. We dare to believe that the Eucharist strengthens and deepens our incorporation into the one body, just as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 (CCC 1396). In this light, Saint Augustine (d. 430) preached: “If you are the body and members of Christ, then it is your sacrament that is placed on the table of the Lord; it is your sacrament that you receive. To that which you respond ‘Amen.’ Be then a member of the Body of Christ that your Amen may be true” (AugSer 272). Thus, this mystery of faith requires attention, prayerful immersion, and wholehearted giving of ourselves. In this way, what we offer to God in thanksgiving is given back to us. the Holy Spirit gives us this gift that we might be constantly transformed into that new person of which Paul writes.
This is why the Second Vatican Council called for the “full, active and conscious participation” of all the faithful in the liturgy (SC 14) and why Pope John Paul II wrote: “Where better is there expressed the truth that we are not only ‘called God’s children’ but “that is what we are’ by virtue of the sacrament of baptism, if not precisely in the fact that in the Eucharist we become partakers of the Body and Blood of God’s only Son? And what predisposes us more to be “true witnesses of Christ”…than Eucharistic communion, in which bears witness to us, and we to him?” (DC 7)
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